Sign in here for Giving Week 2015: nominate your favourite organisation, charity or worthy cause

[JustineMumsnet]

Hello, hello

As (hopefully) lots of you will remember, last year we ran the inaugural Mumsnet Giving Week, raising nearly £23k (with MNHQ match-funding) for five MNer-nominated causes.

The idea is that you lovely lot use this thread to put forward the charities, organisations and good causes that you’d like to benefit - and we at MNHQ will pick five to be the focus of a week-long Mumsnet-wide fundraising drive in June. As last year, we will match-fund the amount raised by the end of the week (up to £25k, just in case any donors turn out to be Bill Gates).

A few principles: ideally the organisations chosen won’t be huge, national charities that already get a lot of coverage and fund-raising welly; they don’t have to be registered charities (our partners at JustGiving will do a bit of due diligence to make sure any that are chosen are legit organisations); and we’re on the lookout for a spread of organisations that reflect MNers’ concerns and interests. Last year the chosen organisations were the PDA Society (providing support for people with a little-known behavioural condition); the MNer-driven Woolly Hugs; Women’s Aid; Free Cakes for Kids; and Haven House Children’s Hospice.

And because we also want to make sure that the causes are ones that existing Mumsnetters have settled on, we’re only going to shortlist projects suggested by Mumsnetters who are registered as of now. (Apologies to newbies who join after this point, but there’s always next year.)

We’ll be partnering up with JustGiving, which will be organising the fundraising element and will also be making a donation to the chosen causes.

You’ve got until May 22 to nominate good causes, using this thread. So get cracking, and as ever do put any queries or comments here as well.

I would definitely like to nominate SWAN - they do an amazing job.

Also want to throw OCD-UK into the mix, they do stirling work on a very tight budget for people with this much maligned condition. They currently want to start up activity days for young people and children affected by OCD but don't have the funding to do so.

oops, the link the the Amber Phillpott Trust should be:
www.amberphillpott.com/

Christian Blanford Trust- Helping seriously ill children in ways most don't think of ie buying blackout blinds for a children's ward so the kids stopped waking up at 5am in the summer
Post Pals- Sending cheerful post to seriously ill children and their brothers and sisters as well as days out and parties
Kids Company- I think everyone knows this great charity
The charity set up by someone on MN in memory of her daughter raising awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning

My vote is for daisy garland I hope my vote counts.

As well as my nomination for bens den
Can I also vote for:
Count the kicks
Swan
Abortion support network

Arc (antenatal results and choices)

Available to any woman (or partner) who has or is going through an abnormal screen of any sort. They have been a life line to me.

The women are very experienced, you can speak to someone who has had the same experience as you.

There is nothing quite like the crushing feeling of finding out something is wrong with your baby then all the complicated medical options.

They were the charity that explained exactly what would happen when I chose my tfmr. They also support women who carry to term.

It doesn't matter what your choice is they are there to give you good advice, tell you what will happen next and support you if, like us, your baby doesn't make it.

I would be in a much darker place now if it wasn't for their support. They do it on very little money.

I see Winston's wish has been nominated - I second it!

I would like to add my vote for the Daisy Garland Charity please.

I'd like to nominate Newcastle Toy and Leisure library. They're an amazing charity full of amazing people who support disabled children and their families in Newcastle. It's been going for 40 years but due to funding issues (like a lot of small charities in the current climate) are at risk of closing. I hate to think what families will do without the service it has been a lifeline for mine.

I'd like to second the nomination of Women for Refugee Women. It's run on a shoestring and the work they do with and on behalf of asylum-seeking women, who are primarily escaping terrible sexual violence and abuse in their own countries, is desperately needed.

Most are interned in Yarl's Wood - imprisoned for having fled abuse. They're guarded by male prison officers in situations which can mirror the scenarios in which they were originally violated. It's awful. Often their applications are denied - the attitude of the authorities here seems to be that rape and sexual abuse is 'just one of the things that happens to women' rather than grounds for asylum - and they are sent back for more.

Until you hear a survivor telling their story (which I did recently) it's hard to really take on board the heartbreaking injustice and cruelty of the whole system; I felt desperately ashamed - enraged in fact - that my country could allow this to happen.

There's which explains a bit more about what they go through here.

If this is possible I Would like to nominate Alder Hey Children's hospital charity. This charity does great work raising money for extras for children in hospital, sometimes for long stays. This includes things like Christmas and birthday presents for the children, visiting performers, even Easter eggs! In September the hospital is moving to a completely new building themed around a park. The donations would really help with the work they will need to do to make each ward as fun and friendly as possible.

I would like to nominate ICP support. They are a very important (little) charity which is a support and information and research charity for Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy. This is the condition with causes itching in pregnancy.

Sadly, my friend's daughter was stillborn due to the lack of knowledge of this condition by the hospital. A lot more research and education needs to be focused on this condition. No one should have to go through what my friend went through. No one should have to leave the hospital without their baby due to a treatable condition. No one should have to go shopping for an outfit for their baby's funeral knowing that is the only outfit they will get to buy their daughter.

www.icpsupport.org

On the same lines, and as a secondry vote, I would also like to nominate Count The Kicks.

I would like to nominate The Running Charity - they work with young people who find themselves homeless and who often have no other forms of support.

• they help to find young people accommodation, a job or go back into education
• they help young people to access mental and physical health services and work at trying to tackle the problems they may have in all the areas of their wellbeing
• they want young people to be given a chance at a future without homelessness

They are a small London charity but they are doing great things and they are always looking for support and volunteers, I have fundraised for them before and they were so grateful. Thanks x

I'd like to nominate Ickle Pickles www.icklepickles.org for the work they do.

Ickle Pickles are the smallest and sickest babies who need intensive care in Neonatal Units – Whether born too soon or with an illness the NHS cares for over 20,000 ickle pickles every year (that's 1 in 8 babies).

Advances in Neonatal medicine have realised incredible improvements in survival rates - in 1975, half of all babies born weighing less than 1.5kg (3.3 lbs) died. Compare that to today where over 90% of premature babies weighing 800g or more (equivalent to a bag of sugar) survive.

Over the same period the pressures on Neonatal care have spiralled due mainly to the expanding population of the UK and an increase in multiple births as fertility treatment has improved.

With NHS budgets being continually squeezed there is a real and tangible need for public donation and support for neonatal care.

The Ickle Pickle Partnership turns gifts and donations into specialised equipment such as incubators and ventilators to help Neonatal units provide incredible levels of care for Ickle Pickles.

They are a small charity raising money for specialist equipment for several Neonatal Units across London and the London Neonatal Transport Service, (and elsewhere across the country) but also enables and supports parents and families to run their own localised appeals for the specific Neonatal unit that helped their ickle pickle.

I would like to nominate Asian Women Lone Parents Association (AWLPA), a small charity that supports Asian lone mums, and their children, by providing services that enables them to improve their lives and wellbeing. They look to empower women who have been through a difficult journey of domestic violence including physical, financial and emotional abuse impacting on them and their children. to participate in their social, economic, health and physical environment.

One of their mums has recently had to flee her situation and is currently homeless. She was in the middle of studying for her ACCA accountancy examination, and only has one more to complete. She will need to do this by June 2016, otherwise, she will need to do the whole course again which she now cannot afford.

The problem is she has an 8 month old baby and is unable to afford the child care in order for her to study and to sit the examination. She needs £3000 to cover 43 days child care at £60 per day and help with her tuition fees.

On completing this final examination she will become a professional qualified accountant, enabling her to get a job and taking her and her child out of the poverty she's currently in. This would completely change her life, making it better for her and her baby.

Here is their link: www.awlpa.org/

Some people have missed this part from the OP I think

And because we also want to make sure that the causes are ones that existing Mumsnetters have settled on, we’re only going to shortlist projects suggested by Mumsnetters who are registered as of now. (Apologies to newbies who join after this point, but there’s always next year.)

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People

They only get I think 1/4 of what Guide Dogs get in donations.

They give assistance dogs to both adults and children with profound hearing loss.

I'd like to second Women's Aid and Count the Kicks :)

But my nomination goes to a fab local charity, Kairos WWT (Women Working Together). They support women who are at risk from or who wish to leave prostitution. They deal with issues of asylum, refuge, drug support, counselling following sexual abuse, and housing. A friend works for them and she does such incredible work. They are a really important organisation especially in light of cuts which will hit vulnerable women hardest.
www.kairoswwt.org.uk/about-us/

In fact I think I want to swap my count the kicks vote to SANDS. Unless I can vote for both, in which case I will :)

(But if I have to choose one, then it's SANDS. Hope that's clear.)

I would like to nominate Papyrus, which works to prevent suicide amongst young people.

A former classmate of my DS1 committed suicide four weeks ago. She was 13.

Don't worry Bertie you can vote for as many as you like - we'll put you down for both.

And yes, we're afraid we're only counting the votes of those who were already MN members when Justine posted this thread (and we are checking) - it's important to ensure these are the choices of MNers. Don't despair though; if you've just joined, you'll be able to nominate and vote in 2016.

I would like to nominate SOBS, Count the Kicks, Bliss and Mary's Meals

I'd like to nominate the enormously progressive, out of the box (but works) charity www.snowdrop.cc - we went to them a year ago in desperation after our daughter lost her sight through headbanging. A year later and 3 development programmes in, she no longer head bangs, is trying to talk and has developed massively. The approach is all rooted in science and they deserve to be supported to continue to do this amazing work.

OK folks - important note about Women's Aid

Given the extremely generous and kind decision by Knotty and Pistey to rule Woolly Hugs out of this year's nominations, it seems to us that it would be best to do the same for Women's Aid, who were also on the shortlist last year.

Hope that seems fair and sorry for leading you all up the garden path by stating the bleeding opposite initially.

You're all very welcome to switch any Women's Aid votes to a different organisation. Quite a few related to domestic violence have already been nominated and we know this is an issue close to the hearts of many MNers.